DESPOTISM OF MILObh. $21

year later, on the last day of November, 1830, the
Sultan formally recognised Milosh as hereditary
Prince. Milosh had reached the summit of his
power; from that moment his influence began to
wane.

The Serbs soon found that the government of their
own fellow-countryman was not much milder than
that of the Turkish Pasha. He collected the taxes
with no less stringency; he treated the chiefs with
no more respect. The peasants asked themselves
whether their desperate struggles with the Turks
had profited them much, and whether they had not
made all their sacrifices simply for the glorification
of one man, Milosh acted as an autocrat He
ceased to assemble the Skitpschtina, and. In spite of
the code which he had introduced for the use of his
countrv% made his own will the highest law. He

•"• T O

took what he chose from his subjects at a price
fixed by himself, and once ordered a whole suburb
of Belgrade to be set on fire, because he wished to
build a new custom-house. He handled the people
like serfs, and forced them to gather in his hay
without payment, like a feudal lord. He enclosed
the commons, on which the peasants fed their swine,
and aimed at obtaining a monopoly of the staple
trade of Servia. The pig has always been an im-
portant factor in Servian politics, and this last act
of the Prince was most unpopular. Even his own
son admitted that Milosh committed great mistakes
in his domestic policy. "Am I not the master? can
I not do what I will with mine own ?" was the
father's reply. Simple and genial as he was in his

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